Seeking Magic

by Eden Briar

  I avoid his gaze. “Why? Is that something a Seeker can do?”

  He catches my chin, tugging my gaze back to his, the smile falling from his face. “Hell if I know.”

  “What about the superspeed thing? Is that you? Did you… do that to me?”

  “Superspeed, Blue?” His eyes cloud with confusion.

  “A few days ago, I could barely dodge a punch. Yesterday, it’s like I’m… ninja-powered—blocking punches, sidestepping slaps, evading kicks. Are you doing that?”

  His confusion only deepens. “Why would you think I am?”

  I shrug, tugging my chin from his grasp as I trail my hand down his arm, evading his curious gaze. “Since we met… since we kissed, I haven’t been able to get you off my mind. I dreamed about you, I saw you in the mirror…and now I can move fast like a vampire.”

  He cups my cheek, his frown fading. “Some vampires can invade dreams, but I’ve never been able to do that. Until now, I guess.”

  “And the mirror thing?”

  “Mirrors show truth. Vampires survive through the art of deception. They don’t much like their own reflections.”

  I know the feeling.

  “So have you picked up anything from me? You know, I got your speed, maybe you got my… banality.”

  He snorts at that, and I shove him lightly. “I’m not joking. People don’t look twice at me. I’m forgettable.”

  The disbelief on his face makes me blush.

  “Not to me, Blue.”

  I frown, snagging my hair between my fingers and examining it. I’m back to lackluster brown, so my glamours are in place. “Why are you calling me Blue?”

  He cants his head to the side, reaches out, and strokes a finger down the bridge of my nose, making my eyelids flutter closed.

  “Why do you think?” he whispers, pressing close to kiss me again.

  I break the kiss, shaking my head as I open my eyes. “My glamours…”

  “You think I can’t see through a little thing like that?”

  He cups my cheek, his eyes searching.

  “What is this?” I press my lips to his in quiet desperation. It’s hard to think with him so close, and yet all I want is to get closer.

  “Hell if I know,” he repeats, pressing his forehead to mine. “But we can’t meet like this again. It’s too dangerous. Every vampire in the city is going to be out for blood. Yours or mine, it won’t much matter to them.”

  “Come back to the guild house with me,” I plead.

  He kisses me again, long and lingering.

  “I can’t,” he breathes. “I’m not welcome there.”

  “What does that mean? Why? Where will you go?”

  “You ask a lot of questions.” He lets out a small huff of laughter. “And it’s a long story. Do you know about the Cull?”

  “Jazz told me yesterday. It sounds like you were all lucky to survive it.”

  “Jazz, huh? Well, it wasn’t luck, not in my case. Matthias was happy to kill everyone else’s half-blood kid, but not his own.”

  “And that’s why you’re not welcome in the guild house? Because of what your father did?”

  It doesn’t seem fair. Zac had been a little kid, what choice had he had in any of it?

  “It’s a little more complicated than that. And there’s also my being raised by vampires. It’s hardly the kind of environment that produces a well-adjusted kid.”

  He seems determined to leave, and I’ve got nothing up my sleeve to convince him otherwise.

  “Where will you go?” I slide my hand into his, interlocking our fingers. I want to draw this out as long as possible.

  “Overseas, maybe. A landmass the city doesn’t touch. Matthias’s reach is long. He won’t recover this year, or even this decade, but he will recover one day. And he’s not the type to forgive and forget. Even if I am his favorite son.”

  It doesn’t escape my notice that Zac says favorite, not only. Matthias got around, huh? I guess I might too, if I’d lived for a millennium.

  “I should get going.” I bite my lip as I say it, running my eyes over his face as if trying to memorize every inch of his skin.

  “You should,” he agrees.

  It’s my turn to cup his face and kiss him, pushing him over onto his back as I roll on top of him. His hands grip my hips as he parts his lips, his tongue seeking mine. I could get lost in this, just never come up for air, and I’d die happy. But all too soon, he gently rolls me onto the grass and sits up. He stares into the distance, transfixed by something.

  “There’s rain on the way. It won’t be safe out here much longer. You should head back.”

  I glance up at the sky and see that he’s right. There are dark clouds in the far distance, and they’re coming our way.

  Pushing to my feet, I stare down at him. “Then I guess this is goodbye.”

  “I guess,” he echoes, avoiding my eyes.

  “Thanks for saving me.” There aren’t enough words in the world to show him how grateful I am for what he did.

  “Anytime, Blue,” he promises with a grin as he moves to his feet in one graceful movement.

  I turn toward the edge of the park, making sure the coast is clear. When I glance back, he’s already gone.

  “Safe journey,” I whisper, wondering where home will be for him when he finally settles somewhere. How far was Matthias’s reach? Should I be running like he is, seeking out the safety of foreign lands?

  Crossing the street, I make my way back to the guild house, in through the front door, barely glancing at the mirror that likes to give away all my secrets. I hear a voice as I step through into the house, freezing as the words wash over me. Rumbled.

  “You are unbelievable. After everything that’s happened, how can you be so cavalier about your own safety? And about all of ours?” Ben folds his arms and glares.

  “I’m not asking you to put yourself at risk,” I snap back.

  “Yeah? Who do you think would be out there searching the city for you if you didn’t come back? I know Archer told you not the leave the house alone. What were you thinking?”

  “I needed some air, that’s all. I’ve only been gone a few minutes.”

  More like twenty, but he doesn’t need to know that.

  “If you need air, crack a window or take a walk in the courtyard. Next time, I’m telling Archer.”

  I know I should let it go, be the better person, but something about Ben just gets under my skin.

  “Yeah, yeah, run to teacher, tell him what a bad girl I’ve been. I knew you had snitch written all over you the moment I set eyes on you. What is your problem?”

  He snaps, raising his voice. “You. You’re my problem. You haven’t even been here a week, and you’ve caused more trouble than we’ve had in years. Jazz can’t stop talking about you, and—”

  A door opens further down the corridor, and Peter peers out at us.

  “Can you two keep it down? Some of us are trying to work. Magical soundproofing only goes so far.”

  Before I can think of a reply, worried I’m about to be thrown to the wolves, Ben walks off, throwing a ‘sorry, Peter’ over his shoulder as he does.

  Peter frowns after Ben, gives me a long, searching look, then disappears back into his office. I decide to make myself scarce before somebody starts wondering why I’m loitering by the front door with fresh grass stains on my clothes.

  14

  I shower to cool down and put on some clean clothes. I’d hoped talking to Zac would give me some answers, but it seems like I might need to do some old-fashioned research. And, of course, the guild house has a library. I have my fingers crossed that it’s digitized until I poke my head in the door and see shelf after shelf of books. Not a computer in sight. Just great.

  I scope the place out carefully, making sure I’m alone before I start scanning the shelves. The only problem is, I have no idea what I’m looking for. Do I search under S for Seeker? E for Evil? WTF for—

  “So, where were you?”<
br />
  I just about jump out of my skin as Jazz appears by my elbow, his quiet voice startling me.

  “Don’t do that.”

  “Do what?” he asks, the picture of innocence.

  “Sneak up on me like that.”

  “I don’t sneak. I’m half-shifter. We’ve got natural stealth.” He grins as he says it, but I’m not amused.

  “We need to get you a bell.”

  His grin only widens at my retort. “Yeah, yeah. Quit stalling and answer my question.”

  “What question?”

  “Where did you go this afternoon? Ben says you went out. I told him he must be mistaken, because you’d have to be crazy to wander out alone after yesterday, but I stopped by your room a little while ago…”

  I wince when I realize where this is going. I’ve never been the neatest of people. Right now my clothes, complete with fresh grass stains, are scattered across my bed and the floor.

  “I was in the park at the end of the street.”

  “Doing what?”

  I shake my head. I don’t want to lie to Jazz, but I can’t tell him everything, not yet. Not until I understand what’s going on.

  “And now you’re here, in the library. Looking for anything in particular?”

  I’m a hairsbreadth away from telling him no when I realize I’ve got next to no chance of finding what I’m looking for without his help.

  Taking a step closer to him, I brace my hand on his shoulder and push up onto my tiptoes to whisper in his ear.

  “Do you know what a Seeker is?”

  His eyes go wide.

  “Seeker?” he repeats, his voice equally as soft. “Going right for the big stuff, huh?”

  He looks around, craning his neck, checking no one is in earshot. “If that’s what you’re looking for, you won’t find it out here. Come on.”

  Taking me by the hand, he leads me to a space between two large bookcases.

  I stare at the wall in confusion. “What am I looking for?”

  “Focus,” he chides under his breath. “The door is runed, it takes a minute to see past it.”

  I don’t know what he’s talking about until I do. What was a blank wall is now a door.

  “Cool. What’s behind there?” My fingers are crossed for an electronic library.

  “More books.”

  My shoulders sag.

  “The secret, forbidden tomes of the magic world?”

  “How did you guess?”

  There’s no handle on the door, and Jazz doesn’t even try to push it open. Instead, he focuses his gaze on the edges of the door frame. I do the same, and strange glowing symbols appear on the wood.

  “What are they?”

  “Runes. They keep the room sealed, protect the books from prying eyes.”

  “Can you get past them?”

  His grin is answer enough. “I’m no druid, but I can bypass a rune or two.”

  At my skeptical look, he adds, “There wasn’t exactly a lot for us to do here as teenagers. Breaking rune locks is kind of a rite of passage.”

  He traces his fingers over the glowing symbols, his face a mask of concentration. Symbol by symbol, the light fades, the runes receding into the wood. The door clicks open, and Jazz turns to me expectantly.

  “Impressive. But don’t let it go to your head.”

  He gestures me through the door, but I hesitate at the threshold.

  “They’re just books,” he says from behind me. “They don’t bite.”

  Grimacing, I step inside. Knowing my luck, the books will make an exception for me.

  They are just books, packed tightly onto floor-to-ceiling shelves. But there are a hell of a lot of them.

  “I thought collections of forbidden books were supposed to be… small?”

  “I know. Says a lot about the magic world that there’s so much they don’t want us to know.”

  “Have you spent a lot of time in here?”

  Does Jazz know for sure that Seekers have a mention in here somewhere, or is he just guessing?

  “Sure. I mean, I mostly like to look at the pretty pictures, but I do occasionally read a word or two.”

  Jazz is looking a little worn by my skepticism.

  “So…Seekers?” I ask, resisting the urge to bat my eyelids or make puppy dog eyes at him.

  He shuts the door behind us and looks left and right, narrowing his eyes in concentration. Then he walks toward a shelf, searching through it.

  “I remember seeing something. I mean, it was years ago, but it freaked me out a little. Where is it…? Ah, got it.”

  He pulls a book from the shelf, holding it up triumphantly. Straightening, he flicks through the pages as he crosses the room toward me. The book in his hands is old. But there’s something familiar about it—the leather binding, the discolored pages, even the musty smell.

  “Here.”

  He holds the book out to me, open on a page near the middle. I take it from him and nearly drop it. Jazz catches it before I can, steadying it so I can get a proper look at the page. It’s a picture, not words, and the sight of it sends a bolt of fear through me.

  “I’ve seen this before.” I trace one finger across the page, my voice a whisper. I don’t know why this image evokes such strong emotion in me. Maybe I don’t want to know.

  It’s a drawing of a girl, frail and scared. She’s bound in chains. The ends of her chains are held in the hands of seven men, their faces obscured. But it’s not the men that the girl is looking at. It’s a dark, faceless… thing. Faceless except for an eye of fire. Is this what Zac was talking about? The ancient evil the Seeker was created to destroy?

  I lift my head, meeting Jazz’s concerned gaze.

  “This isn’t me.” Fear courses through me as I speak—I don’t know if I believe what I’m saying. “I’m not helpless. I won’t be bound.”

  “Indy?” Jazz looks from me to the book, rapidly catching on to what I’m saying. “Fuck. No, you… you can’t be.”

  “I’m not.” I shake my head emphatically. “I—”

  Jazz’s gaze jerks past me, toward the door. “Shit, someone’s coming.”

  He yanks the book from my hands, shoving it back onto the shelf. Then he grabs me, backs me against the wall next to the bookcase, cups my face in his hands, and kisses me.

  My brain is slow to work out what’s going on, distracted by the sudden press of his lips to mine. And then I’m kissing him back eagerly, on my tiptoes, my hands on his shoulders. His nose bumps mine, and we both giggle breathlessly.

  Someone coughs behind us, and I peer around Jazz to see Archer standing there, looking less than impressed. Jazz’s impulsive desire to make out suddenly makes a lot of sense.

  “You shouldn’t be in here. Either of you.”

  Jazz does a good job of looking embarrassed, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck, his cheeks flushing.

  “Sorry, Archer. We were just…”

  “I see what you were doing,” Archer says, holding up a hand to stop Jazz from saying any more. “But this is… not the place. Jazz, I’m sure there’s some work you could be doing. And Indigo, perhaps you could… find somewhere else to pass the afternoon.”

  “Sure, Archer,” Jazz says.

  “Sorry, Archer.” I feel my face heat as I avoid his gaze.

  We slip past him and out of the room, and he closes the door behind us. Jazz gives me a small grin that fades to a look of concern. He reaches for me, cupping my face again, and holds my gaze for a long moment. We don’t speak. We can’t, not with Archer so close by. Besides, even if we could, I don’t know what to say. That picture… I’ve seen it before. But where? How? It doesn’t mean anything. I don’t want it to mean anything.

  Jazz strokes his thumb across my cheek and presses one last kiss to my lips before heading for the door. I’m about to follow him when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. It’s Ben, up on the balcony that surrounds the library. He’s watching us, watching me. I wonder how long he’s bee
n standing there.

  Archer steps out of the secure room with a book in his hand and seals the door, giving me a look that tells me I should be elsewhere. I give him my best innocent smile and wander away.

  Instead of leaving, I climb up the steps to the balcony, wandering around to where Ben is standing. I’m about to take him to task for spying on us when he starts talking.

  “I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that.”

  I’m so surprised, it takes me a moment to think of a response. “Uh, thanks?”

  He glances away, but I see the smile he tries to hide.

  “You were mostly right,” I add. “It was stupid of me to wander off by myself.”

  “And yet you did it anyway.”

  I raise an eyebrow, and he shrugs. “Sorry, I’m trying. Jazz told me I should make more of an effort to be civil.”

  “Civil, huh?”

  Our conversation is rapidly deteriorating.

  “So, what’s your deal then?” Maybe, if we were being civil, it might mean I get some answers.

  “My deal?”

  “The standoffish, won’t shake my hand, won’t give me the time of day thing. What did I ever do to you?”

  He turns to face me, leaning back against the balcony railing.

  “Did Jazz happen to mention that I’m clairvoyant?”

  I rack my brain, coming up empty. If he had, I’ve forgotten. “No. Well, maybe. Should he have? You’re also half-caster, right? Then you’re caster-clairvoyant?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Cool. What kind of powers have you got? What do you see?”

  It’s only as I ask that I realize I still really don’t know all that much about casters or clairvoyants. I probably sound like an idiot—either that, or I’m stomping all over magical etiquette in muddy boots.

  The latter seems likely. Ben looks more uncomfortable, avoiding my gaze.

  “Jazz has the best of both worlds,” he tells me. “His shifter agility and power complement his caster abilities.”

  He glances at me, just for a moment, before looking away again.

  “Clairvoyant abilities often skip a generation. My grandmother was a world-renowned seer of incredible power. She would see wonderful things for people, guiding them toward successful careers, finding true love, or fulfilling their dreams. My father is a blank slate, not a trace of clairvoyancy. But me…”